


my soul finds a home with you

by theredhoodie



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M, Headcanon, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-25
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2018-02-18 17:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2356436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhoodie/pseuds/theredhoodie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seth and Kate pull away from the Twister, and then what? They start traveling, stumbling along, figuring out where to go from here. Everything is uncertain south of the border, something that Kate and Seth are going to find out quickly, especially when they're trying to stop the younger Gecko from starting an apocalypse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my soul finds a home with you

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just an enormous headcanon that I wrote on the 2nd of September in one sitting, after marathoning the show a few days prior. I've been editing the crap out of this on my own, therefore any mistakes are my own, but I think I got it relatively at a good place.
> 
> It's pretty heavy, and I have a Part 2/Sequel type thing that will patch up any ~plot holes~ you think I made (I didn't, I left them out purposely because of the sequel!) so if you enjoy this, then there's that to look forward to.
> 
> Also, I made this playlist for this fic. I think it's about as long as it takes to read (generally), and I tried to have it in a relatively fic-oriented order. [FANMIX HERE](http://8tracks.com/theredhoodie/my-soul-finds-a-home-with-you)
> 
> NOW FEATURING A SEQUEL: [scar like you](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3137828)!!!

"Soul-mates aren't the ones who make you happiest, no. They're the ones who make you feel you the most. Burning edges and scars and stars. Old pains and pangs, captivation and beauty. Strain and shadows and worry and yearning. Sweetness and madness and dreamlike surrender. They hurl you into the abyss. They taste like hope."

— Victoria Erickson

8

Kate has nightmares. It's understandable, given what she has been through. She wakes up screaming and thrashing, Seth's hands on her shoulders, holding her down. He wakes up at the first yelp from her and shuffles over to her bed, holding her down so she doesn't hurt herself until she gasps awake, eyes wide and staring. She blinks up at the hotel ceiling, usually at some sort of weird stain that changes every night. He doesn't say anything, and doesn't ask, because there's really no use asking. He knows what she's seeing when she closes her eyes. Instead, he sits and she lays there in the silence. After a few nights of this, Seth starts rubbing her back to help her fall back asleep, just soft little circular motions that lulls Kate back into a false sense of security.

And maybe she does feel safe around Seth. He's quieter with Richie gone. And the fact that he's able to soothe her so gently is surprising at first. He isn't a soft person, neither of the Gecko brothers are. But Kate accepts his kindness in return for her own. She can't even fathom how she got into this situation in the first place, that horrid day flashing through her mind so many times everything starts to blur. Had it only been  _one day_? How could all of that happen in twenty-four hours?

She gives herself headaches thinking about it as they drive.

8

They stay in Mexico for a while, halfheartedly trying to follow Richie and Santanico's trail, but they aren't easy to track. Kate holds onto the hope that they find them before Santanico's plans to take down her old gods get put into motion.

"What are you gonna do when we find them?" Kate asks. The first day they drove until they found a place to spend the night with running water. They showered under the cold water and both of them slept like the dead well into the night. That night they didn't talk much, but they started to make plans of what they were going to do. They came up with something simple: find Richie.

It's now day three. Day two had been spent in the hotel room, gathering up what they could, buying some clothes with their meager funds and making plans. Kate sits in the passenger side of the dark car and Seth has sunglasses pushed onto his face.

"I dunno," he replies, hand gripping the wheel. His knuckles go white.

Kate shifts in her seat, her eyes out on the road in front of them. If it can be called a road. "Are you gonna kill him?" she asks after a beat.

Seth takes in a deep breath and lets it out through his nose. He licks his lips and rubs his stubbly chin with his free hand. "I dunno. Maybe."

Kate blinks out the windshield. The air gets silent around them, aside from the way it gusts around their heads. "I killed my dad down in the tunnels," she says very softly. She, her father and the Ranger had gone a different way than Seth and neither of them had talked about what happened in the in-between time. Except for Seth telling Kate that Richie had been turned and was now on the run with that crazy culebra bitch. His words, not hers.

Seth clears his throat and glances over at her. She's looking straight out of the windshield. "I'm sorry you had to do that," he says finally.

Kate presses her lips together and nods, turning fully in the seat to face him. "He asked me to," she explains further. "If Richie asked you to, would you?"

Seth furrows his eyebrows, disappearing behind the sunglasses. "Richie wouldn't ask me to," he says firmly.

She sucks in a breath and nods again, resting her head back against the seat and closing her eyes. The wind tries tugging her hair out of the braid she pulled it back into, but it only manages to pull out strands to fling around. The fresh air feels amazing. She thinks that she will never get the stench of death out of her senses, but maybe if she just lives outside for the rest of her life…

8

Kate only cries sometimes. She'll lock herself away in the bathroom and clutch the edge of the counter or sink to the floor and press her back to the door. Sometimes it's just too much to feel at once that she has to let it out. Sometimes Seth is in the room when she gets out, sometimes he's not.

She's never seen him cry, and maybe he can't. She doesn't know. They both have brothers caught in the world of snake-like  _vampires_. Richie is somewhere out there, starting some sort of supernatural apocalypse with Santanico, and Scott is somewhere in that god forsaken temple, hopefully being fed by Carlos.

When she's done crying, she stands up and wipes her face, though there is no way to hide the red around her eyes. Makeup isn't a thing that exists in their current way of life. She pulls open the bathroom door and finds Seth sitting at the little table under the front window that has bars on it, causing shadows to fall across the room.

He has food on the table, some form of taco wrapped in tin foil. She folds herself into the chair opposite him and eats silently.

8

"I'm not robbin' banks with you," Kate says after the first week. They have been slowly traveling, and their funds are running low. Seth looks at her like she just suggested something highly inappropriate.

"I wasn't asking you to," he says. He's slowly growing gruff again during the day. He still rubs her back at night when she wakes up in tears, but he's getting less soft during daylight hours.

She makes a face and twirls her hair on a finger, leaning over the table. They have their money pooled there. She bites her bottom lip. "But we do need money." She pokes at the meager pile.

"Obviously," Seth sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. He hasn't shaved in a week. Razors are an expense they can't afford.

Kate presses her lips together. "Maybe we should start goin' back toward the border," she suggests. She has a plan, but she isn't sure how well it will go. People die in Mexico all the time, or come here to get lost. Her dad had packed up their whole lives when they moved, but she should still have a savings account under her name. She isn't eighteen yet, but maybe she can manage to get money out somehow...

Seth huffs about that for a while before standing up and stating he had to go think. He leaves her alone in the hotel room. She stares at the closed door. If her mother could see her now…

8

A series of natural disasters start down the length of Mexico. It takes them a while to notice, but when they do, Kate makes the connection. It must be because of Richie and Santanico, starting their  _let's-piss-of-some-ancient-gods_  escapade.

"Should we follow them?" Kate asks, marking out the pattern on a map. Seth is gnawing on his bottom lip and pacing. He stops at the edge of the table and runs his eyes along the path she marked.

"No," Seth says firmly. "We don't have enough resources. We're almost out of cash and we're back toward the border anyway." He pointed a finger to where they were staying.

Kate wants to insist, to say "We need to find Richie" because something is telling her that they need to so badly it's hard for her to not to say that over and over throughout the day. She fears that Seth would shoot her if she kept saying that though, so she holds her tongue. Just like now. "I'm turnin' eighteen soon," she says, her plan coming back in mind.

Seth arches an eyebrow at her. "Congratulations."

Kate frowns and stands straight, facing him. "Once I turn eighteen, I can get into my savings fund. We gotta go back to California though," she says, because her plan is as simple as that.

Seth looks down at her for a long time before he shrugs a shoulder. "Fine. When's your birthday?"

"Next week."

8

The next dream she has leaves her gasping awake for an entirely different reason than the others. She lies there in the hotel sheets, staring up at the ceiling, skin flushed and sweaty. It is the type of dream that virgin preacher's daughters aren't supposed to have, especially not when they involve an older man in horn-rimmed glasses who is potentially starting an apocalypse.

Seth isn't in the room. She gets out of bed slowly and runs cold water over her hands and wrists and sprinkles some on her face. She pulls on her jeans and walks outside. It's dark, still the middle of the night. She doesn't fear the night any more than usual, but maybe that is just because she has a knife tucked away at her side.

Seth is sitting out in the raggedly courtyard, feet dangling into the empty pool. Kate moves next to him and sits, her own legs hanging down.

"Are you okay?" she asks, gripping the edge of the concrete with her hands and looking up at the sky.

"Couldn't sleep," he replies, eyes burrowing holes into the pool walls. "Plus, it sounded like you were having quite the dream."

Kate blushes, thankful that the courtyard doesn't have any lights. "Sorry," she says quickly, unsure of what else to say. Her heart seizes up as she wonders if she had been moaning out a name like she had in her dream, but she doesn't ask because it's embarrassing.

"You should stay in tomorrow," Seth says, filling the awkward void.

"What do you mean?"

Seth shifts and glances over at her. "We don't have enough money to get us across the border."

Kate waits for him to continue, but he doesn't and then she figures out why. "You're gonna rob somethin'," she says.

He nods. "Yeah. So you stay here. If it goes bad…"

Kate knows he is used to having Richie help him, and instead he is stuck with the preacher's daughter. "It will be fine," she says, reaching over and touching the back of his hand. "I trust you."

8

Seth comes back with enough money to get them over the border and no bullet wounds to contend with. They cross into California under the cover of night and use the leftover US currency to get themselves a hotel room for the night. This one has hot water and a working television.

Kate showers first and stretches out on the bed, turning on the TV. She flips through to a horror movie, transfixed on the screen. The blood looks fake. She starts laughing and keeps it playing.

"Really?  _The Lost Boys_?" Seth shakes his head when he comes out of the bathroom. He isn't wearing much, just his underwear, but Kate has grown accustomed to that. Her daddy wouldn't be impressed.

Kate shrugs and settles back against the headboard. "When you've faced a temple of Mayan vampires, movie vampires really ain't that scary."

"True enough," Seth says, sitting on the end of his mattress.

There's a vampire movie marathon and they watch it until the wee hours of the night when they fall asleep, fake blood and screams filling the hotel room.

8

They stay in the room for three days until her birthday. They plan, they replan, they make so many plans that they start naming them K, L, M. They both think highly of their plan, and, if it goes well, they'll be able to start going after Richie again.

The night before the day of action, they go out to find a new car. It's the first time they come in contact with culebra on American soil. Neither of them leaves the hotel room without a stake and knife and gun tucked into their jackets, and tonight is no exception. There are two of the mosters, grabbing victims in an alley. It is almost too cliché, but they know what they have to do.

The culebra turn to dust. They don't know how to tell if a culebrahad injected their venom or just fed, but Kate can't kill an innocent soul so she forces Seth to leave them.

They find a car and drive it back to the hotel.

8

Kate has to control her dreams. Not only has she conditioned herself to sleep light and wake up if she gets too noisy, but she isn't about to lose her virginity vicariously through her dreams so she forces herself awake before that happens. She can only imagine what it would really feel like, and she doesn't want to  _imagine_  it.

She also doesn't want to start saying Richie's name in her sleep, not with Seth sleeping just feet away.

8

They sit at the table, cash and bonds piled up on the table. It isn't all of Kate's money, since that would look suspicious, but it is a good chunk. It was supposed to go to college, but school isn't even something she can think about now. She sips coffee, because she drinks coffee now, and looks over the money.

Seth has counted it ten times already.

"It's not gonna change amounts," she says softly, amusement trickling across her features.

"You don't know that," Seth replies, just as lightly, the corner of his lips twisting up. Money makes him happy, she can tell.

He starts counting it again. Maybe eleven is his lucky number. Kate just rolls her eyes and sits, watching him.

"Are we goin' after Richie now?" she asks, talking slowly, as if to an injured animal.

Seth pauses for a fraction of a second but continues counting the stack of bills in his hands. "Why? So I can kill him?"

Kate frowns and bites down on the bottom lip. They both know it was more than that. "What happens when Santanico successfully pisses off her snakey gods so much they come down and wreak havoc on the world? Are we just gonna sit back here and do nothin'? You're still wanted, Seth. For robbery  _and_  murder," she adds coldly.

"I never killed anyone," Seth says, just as coldly. They both know that's a lie. But, on the last hit, the one that led Seth to Kate in the first place, he hadn't killed anyone. "That was all Richie."

Kate hugs an arm around her knees. "You're gonna keep lettin' him kill people? They ain't gonna stop unless someone stops them first."

Seth puts his hands flat against the table and sits back, looking her right in the eyes. "You sure this isn't some teenage girl save her prince bullshit?" he asks.

Kate blinks like she's been slapped. "What?"

"C'mon, I'm not an idiot, Kate. You like my brother, right? Even when he's all fangs and scales, you dream all sorts of naughty things about him."

Just because it's true, doesn't make it sting any less. Kate's fingers tighten around her mug. Her eyes burn.

"This ain't no fairy tale, we find him and kill him, there's no in between. No magic cure for this culebra bullshit," he finishes.

Kate swallows and stands, deliberately and slowly. "Three weeks ago, neither of us believed somethin' like culebra even actually existed. We don't got any idea of what's really out there, Seth," she says, putting her mug down. "And just because I'm young doesn't mean I live a life of delusions. If you haven't forgotten, my mother tried to kill herself, my brother was turned into a blood-sucking monster and I had to kill my own father.

"If we find Richie and kill him, then that would be good enough for me. I would think you'd rather him be dead than livin' this horrible life." At that, she turns on her heel and marches out of the hotel room, slamming the door behind her.

8

"Where'd you get the money from?"

It's the first words spoken since their argument. Kate had been gone all night and Seth had stayed awake until she got back, when he feigned sleep. The following morning, nothing but silence, until Seth couldn't handle it any more.

Kate stops mid-chew. She looks across the room at him. She's sitting on her bed, a bag of vending machine chips in hand, while Seth is plotting their next move. "A great aunt," Kate replies. "She's lived in San Diego her whole life and gave me my own trust fund. Hence, California." She waves around orange tipped fingers.

"Hmmph," Seth nods. "Aren't trust funds supposed to be for college and shit?"

Kate crunches down on a Dorito. "Do I look like a college type to you? I'm on the run with a wanted bank robber, tryin' to stop an apocalypse."

Seth chuckles and looks down at the map. "Speaking of…we should get going soon. Tomorrow morning."

Kate sighs and nods. "Where are we goin'?"

Seth ran his fingers over the map and hunched over the table. "We're going after Richie."

Kate sucks in a breath and tries not to smile over her small victory. At least Seth isn't planning on running off with all of her trust fund money. She doesn't know how she would move back into her own life if Seth ever dropped her off somewhere to fend for herself. Sure, she can handle herself fine when it came to killing culebra, but she is still just an eighteen year old girl with little-to-no life experience and no family.

8

Seth doesn't like Kate knowing a lot about him. They've been together for nearly three weeks and she barely feels like she knows him at all. He doesn't want her to feel what he feels or see what he sees the way that Richie did.

Kate never understood that. What would Richie even like about her? And why did she let him affect her so much? Why did she kiss him at that bar in Mexico and why had she gotten so offended when she realized what she was doing? Why did she always think about him, even if she let her mind slip away for the shortest of seconds? Every part of her mind was consumed with him and she didn't know why.

She doesn't ask Seth about it, because it's personal and he isn't one for sharing, so neither will she.

So when they're back on the south side of the border, Kate tries to act as cool and tough as Seth, driving the car when Seth needs a break and following the signs that all pointed to Richie.

"You know," Seth says, startling her. He is supposed to be sleeping, not talking to her. Their new car has a roof to keep away the sun, even though it's stretching into September and the weather was getting more bearable. "My brother…"

"Seth," she interrupts him.

He waves a hand at her and continues. "He's not great at dealing with people. In general. Not the greatest, even before all of this culebra, voodoo bullshit scrambled up his brain. So just…don't hold out hope or think that he liked you or anything." Kate frowns at the past tense, but keeps her eyes on the road. "Just don't make him out to be your poster boy, because he's anything but." His words trail off.

Kate grips the steering wheel and glares through the window. She wants to agree with him, but another part knows Richie knew exactly what he was doing when he talked to her by the pool. Another part wants to scream out that Seth was wrong. Because Richie kissed her back  _and_  he kissed her again, back there in that club before he got snared by that snake lady and turned into a monster. But she doesn't. She bites her tongue and drives.

8

This dream is different. They're sitting at the edge of that same pool where they met. She's in a white bikini and he's in his usual white shirt and suit, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. She has a lounge chair, her legs stretched out in front of her and he's got a regular chair beside her. There are no kissing or sexual advances going on here. All that is touching is their fingers, dangling between their chairs like vines intertwined.

"If there was a cure, would you wanna go back to bein' human?" she asks him, squinting her eyes against the sun until she just decides leaning her head back and closing her eyes is a better option.

"Maybe," he replies. The air around them is curled with white cigarette smoke, but he's the only one smoking. "It would depend."

"Depend on what?" Kate turns her head to the side and opens one eye. His profile comes into view.

"I made a promise to help Santanico until she's free," he explains.

Even the name of the centuries old creature makes Kate's skin crawl. "But what if that hurts a lot of people? Wouldn't you wanna stop?"

He frowns, contemplating. It shouldn't be up for contemplation. Kate sighs and twists her torso so her shoulders fully face him.

"Richie. What if you had to hurt me to help her? Would you hurt me?"

Smoke curls out from between his lips. Kate tightens her grip on his fingers.

"I don't know," he says finally. He flicks the end of the cigarette into the pool water.

Kate's face falls. "You would hurt me?" she whispers.

He turns in his seat then, fully, his legs swinging over the armless sides. "I don't know," he repeats.

Just as his fingers loosen, a pair of hands slide around Kate's neck from behind and press against her windpipe. She gasps for breath, dropping his hand and scrambling to unlink the fingers strangling her. Her vision blurs and he just sits there, watching.

She wakes up gasping for air and coughing, rolling onto her side and reaching for her throat.

"Kate? Kate!" Seth's hands grab her shoulders and she rolls into him, her shoulder digging into his thigh, her eyes watering as she tries to rid herself of the hands around her neck. She coughs and buries her face against Seth's side, her fingers digging into his back. "Jesus Christ, Kate…" he mutters, though he lays an arm around her torso and smooths his fingers over her hair.

8

They're halfway through Mexico when they're caught by a group of culebra. There are too many for them to handle. They are only two humans and almost a dozen blood sucking beasts. Kate and Seth fight, taking down as many as possible before they're overtaken by their speed and strength.

Kate sees the end, regrets piling up in her mind. She knows that having regrets isn't something good, but she can't help it. Richie comes to the forefront of her mind as she closes her eyes, not wanting to see the horrible fanged faces around her, ready to rip into her flesh.

And then it all stops. The snarling, the nails biting into her skin, the stench of blood and reptile breath. Instead, her nose fills with the scent of ash and she cracks open an eye. "Seth?" she whispers, rolling onto her side. She blinks through the dirt and ash and sees that Seth is just as down on the ground as she is. She coughs and pushes herself up, squinting and looking around as Seth squirms and curses near her.

Someone's standing a ways away, tall and lean in black. Kate can't see enough through the swirling dust and ash, but her mind tells her it's Richie. Her lungs are too filled with particles to say anything, having no strength to do anything but cough. She blinks three times and the figure is gone.

8

"Seth?" She's spent what felt like hours rinsing ash out of her clothes in the sink. Her hands are turning into prunes.

"What?" he snaps.

She's used to it. It doesn't faze her anymore. She just nods and continues rinsing out the clothes. "You know that Santanico could get into Richie's mind…"

"Mm."

"Do you think all of them can do that?" She rubs out her shirt one last time and wrings it out as much as possible.

Seth appears in the doorway, blocking her exit. "What do you mean?"

Kate glances up into the dirty mirror and meets his eyes. "I dunno."

"No shit," Seth grumbles, scraping his fingers over his scalp. "You really wanna get into my brother's head?"

Kate sucks in a breath. She shouldn't be surprised that he always understands where her mind goes. It always goes to Richie. "Not particularly," she says softly. "But, he never had any control over seeing things, did he?" Seth shrugs. "Yeah…that's what I thought."

Seth is quiet and stays there, crossing his arms and filling the space even more, crowding her in the little room. "You been having visions and shit?"

She turns around, her clothes balled up in her hands. "No. Not while I'm awake," she replies, standing in front of him and waiting for him to move.

Seth swallows and clenches his jaw. She can see his muscles move at his jaw joint. "Would you tell me if you do?"

She studies his face. She sees a flash of something in his eyes that she can't quite put her finger on. Fear…hope…?

"Of course," she says, nodding.

8

Kate goes out one night. They're in Mexico City, and Kate isn't afraid to go out alone. She has to pick up tampons and Seth would rather shoot his hand off than buy them, so she goes by herself while he sits in the hotel room plotting where to move next.

The last odd occurrence was the death of cattle in mass proportions. It was harming the agriculture, and all of the cows and bulls were drained of blood with their bellies burst open. That led them here, where a few less massive animals, like goats and donkeys, were coming up with the same injuries and corpses.

They would probably leave tomorrow, if they find somewhere to go, some destination to head toward.

Kate is anticipating a mugging, or someone trying to rape her. That's what she got for going out after dark. She should have gone out earlier, before the sun went down. But here she is, walking in the dark, a gringa in the capital city of the ancient land. She has stakes and daggers in her jacket pockets, but she isn't fast enough.

Someone comes wordlessly and silently behind her, slipping an arm around her middle and lifting her off the ground, a hand clamping over her mouth. Her feet kick, but her arms are stuck against her sides.

"Kate."

She stills instantly, her toes touching the ground.

"Don't scream."

She isn't sure she can even breathe. He removes his hand and she slips down onto the soles of her boots. He keeps a hand clamped around her upper arm, even as she turns around to face him.

He looks so different without his glasses. Kate isn't sure if she likes it or not.

"Richie," she breathes out.

"Hi," he says, as if they had a casual meeting on the street.

Kate blinks and then gawks up at him. "Hi? That's it? We've been searchin' for you for weeks!" She shoves him with her free arm, but he's pretty sturdy and only moves his shoulder a little bit backward.

"I know," he says, as endearing and brutally honest as always.

She hesitates a moment. A part of her wants to stake him then and there, to stop him from killing any more people with his bare hands or through means of upsetting Santanico's ancient gods. But, another part of her pulls her to him, her mind a rush of the past three and a half weeks spent searching for him, spent dreaming and wishing and craving him. "Have you been followin' us? Were you the one who killed those culebra a few days ago?" She tries to harden herself to steely. She needs to be strong, because no one else is going to be strong for her.

Richie blinks and his eyes shift down a fraction of an inch.

"It  _was_  you," Kate exclaims, poking his chest with her index finger. "I knew it!"

"You did?" He sounds surprised. Which is…surprising, considering this is Richie and not Seth. Seth? Seth can sound surprised. Richie is much less into trivial emotion.

Kate nods, dropping her hand to her side. "Yeah. How did you know I—we were there?"

The grip on her arm loses some of its vice. "You're very easy to follow. I think my brother is loosing his touch."

Kate can tell that he's lying. He isn't good at it. Not at all. "Seth is fine. Tell me the truth." She steps closer, feeling suddenly that she has the upper hand. She knows him better than she realized. How is that possible? They spent less than twenty-four hours together, more like twelve, and yet…here they are. She lifts her hand and presses it against his chest this time, pushing him backward until his back hits the stucco wall. "Don't lie to me, Richie."

"How can you tell I'm lying?" He lifts his own free hand and lifts her chin up, before tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "Can you feel me, too?"

 _Too?_  Kate blinks, reminding herself that he's still dangerous, that he's still a culebra and she has to be careful. He was stronger and dangerous before, and now it is even worse. Her conversation with Seth comes back to her but she feigns innocence. "You can feel me? You mean, when I'm close or somethin'?"

He studies her face. She wonders if he can tell she knows more than she's letting on. "Yes," he says, his thumb resting on the middle of her chin. She's forgotten how much taller he is. "I can feel when you're close. And I can feel how you feel."

She can't do that. If she does, if this is a two-way street, she should be feeling fits of hunger and anger at least once a day. But she doesn't. "I can't do that," she echoes her own thoughts, shaking her head a little.

"No?" He looks disappointed.

Kate swallows, feeling how cool his skin is beneath her fingers. "Maybe…maybe it works differently for me. Or maybe you can just feel more because you're…" She pauses. "Because you're  _you_. You're in tune with all this."

Richie stays very still, unnervingly so. Like a snake, Kate thinks. And she shivers, but he doesn't seem to notice. "Does it bother you?" He furrows his eyebrows. "No, it doesn't. What do you feel? Do you ever feel me?"

This is all a little over Kate's head. A month ago, she was a small town preacher's daughter from Texas with a full family. Now, her family was all gone and she was basically pressed up against a murderous culebra in an alleyway in Mexico City. The supernatural and sublime doesn't frighten her anymore, she just makes sure to always expect something even more crazy to pop up. "I dream about you," Kate says softly. Seth already knew, what was the harm in telling the subject of those dreams? If Richie could feel her, then maybe he could feel her all of the time, and he would know what she was talking about.

"Are they good dreams?" His fingers are moving from her chin to curl through the soft wispy hair at the base of her neck.

Kate tilts her head back a little more, wondering if this is some sort of trick. She reminds herself that he is still the enemy. Santanico has to be close if Richie is here. She needs to get back to Seth…

"You don't know?" she asks, feeling courageous and brave, like she always does when she is around him. From the pool to the RV to the bar to here.

Richie's eyes are trailing all over her face. "I can only feel you when you're awake," he explains, pressing his thumb against the side of her throat. Not hard, but enough for her to know he has his finger there.

She doesn't think anything of it. And she should have. Instead, she raises her eyebrows and calms her nerves in case he is reading her feelings right here and now. Inwardly, she is grateful that he doesn't know the extent of intimacy involved between them in her dreams. "Oh. Then I guess it's kinda like a switch. I can only feel you when you can't feel me." It sounds so awkward coming off of her tongue, but she says it anyway.

Neither of them asks the other why they think they're connected. It's random, almost as random as Santanico choosing Richie, but maybe that wasn't so random either. Maybe fate is pulling all of them together for a reason.

 _All of them_. Seth. He would start to worry if she wasn't back within a timely manner. She swallows, Richie's thumb still held against her throat. "Richie," she says softly, because he hasn't opened his mouth to speak for many seconds and the air between them was growing oddly warm. "I need to—"

"You smell amazing," Richie interrupts. A chill runs down Kate's spine again. Normally, she would be flattered by such comments, but not when her commenter drank blood for survival.

"Richie," she says again, this time with a spike of panic.

He shakes his head. "It won't hurt," he says. He's much stronger than she is and can move so much faster. She doesn't scream or try to run. She squeezes her eyes shut. She expects pain, even though he said there wouldn't be any. She should have believed him. There's the soft touch of his lips against her neck, before a pinched-feeling like getting a flu shot. She feels lightheaded and grips his elbow with her hand, his grasp tightening against her arm, her other fingers wrinkling his shirt under their tightening grip.

It isn't cool and sexy like the teen novels or vampire movies, but it isn't unbearable and Richie doesn't kill her.

The pricks in her neck are gone and the cold air tackles the small puncture wounds. She cracks open her eyes to see Richie wiping the corner of his mouth with his thumb, the same one that had been pressed against her neck.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that," he says.

Kate frowns this time, reaching her hand up to her neck. "Did you…?"

"You'll be fine." By fine, he means that he hadn't injected any venom in her and had only sampled her blood. Her pure, virgin blood…it is a surprise he was even able to control himself.

Kate opens her mouth to say something else, but Richie shakes his head. "Don't you need to get back to my brother?"

The way he says it makes Kate feel like she's some cheap wife, sleeping with her husband's brother, but that isn't the case. Still, it hits home and she steps back, dropping her hand from his chest. "I want to save you," she says, her voice small and not at all the confident tone she had just minutes ago.

Richie lets go of her arm and steps closer. "Good luck with that," he says, before he steps away, leaving the air around her warm, like it should be.

Kate stands there for a while, feeling the world sway around her until she pulls her hair down to cover her neck and walks slowly to the store just around the corner. They have piles of tampon boxes everywhere and Kate finds the happiest looking box and hands over the right money amount before she tucks the bag under her oversized jacket and walks back to the hotel.

8

"He  _bit_  you?" Seth is angry. He's rip-roaring angry and Kate is sitting on the bed, rubbing her temples and drinking as much bottled water as her bladder can handle.

"Yes," Kate says through clenched teeth. "But only to…drink my blood. He said I'd be fine."

Seth glares and turns at her, tattooed arm pointing at her. "You let him?"

"I didn't have a choice. He's strong," she defends herself, "and much bigger than me, in case you hadn't noticed."

Seth narrows his eyes, unbelieving. Kate sighs and lies back on the bed, the whole world swimming in front of her eyes. She lifts her hand in the air in front of her and waves it around. There's a tiny bit of double vision going on.

"That means he's here though. We can stop whatever fucked up plan Santanico has roped him into," Seth continues, voice still too loud for Kate, but at least his anger isn't directed at her and he's focusing it into making plans.

"He doesn't want to be saved," Kate breathes out, dropping her hand to her stomach and watching the ceiling blur above her.

"Huh?" Seth turns toward her, but she just shakes her head against the pillow and rolls onto her side, grabbing the flat pillow and scrunching it up under her head.

8

This dream isn't like the others. Richie biting her changed everything. They're at the pool again, only this time, she knows she's dreaming. She looks over and Richie is sitting there, legs off to the side, facing her as she's laid out against the chair.

"I haven't been in the sun for weeks," he comments, lifting his hand and watching the rays of the sun beat down against his flesh.

Kate bites down on her bottom lip. "Why did you do that?" she asks quietly. She doesn't know how she knows, but she does.

This isn't just her dream. This is Richie's too, and the Richie right there…he isn't just a figment of her imagination.

"Do what?" He's fascinated by his own hand in the sun.

Kate sits up quickly, folding her legs and facing him, reaching out her own hand to grab his and yank it out of his line of sight. "Why'd you bite me?"

He rolls his tongue around his mouth, the tip dragged between his top and bottom teeth. He's mulling over his answer. "I needed to know what you tasted like."

She tries not to get creeped out over the insanity of this situation. His skin is warm under hers, unlike in the alleyway, where he had been chilly, room temperature. She hesitates before asking, "What do I taste like?"

She figures all blood tastes the same, but that wasn't what Richie was searching for. "I tasted your soul," he says, leaning forward. He's not wearing his glasses in this dream either. She decides she doesn't like it.

"What did it taste like?" she prods, voice small.

Richie's lips part and his eyes drift off over her head until she tugs at his hand and calls back his attention. She asks again. He licks his lips this time and nearly squints against the sun, his eyes focusing on her eyes. "Home," he says. "Your soul tastes like home."

She isn't expecting that answer. She sits back, her spine straight, her hand still clutching his in the air between them. "Home?" she echoes.

_What does it feel like?_

_What does what feel like?_

_To know that you…to know that you belong, really?_

_It feels like home._

His words echo through time back at her and she lets go of his hand.

"Home," Richie repeats, just as confused as she is.

Kate blinks and shakes her head, rubbing her palms against her knees. "You can't…you can't say that to me," she whispered fiercely.

"What do you mean?"

Kate meets his gaze and hardens her own. She has to be strong again. "You can't tell me somethin' like that and tell me that you don't wanna be saved. I can never become somethin' like you, Richie. I'll save you, one way or another. I can't let you keep hurtin' people."

Her one way or another is either killing him to release his soul from Santanico's grasp, or finding some magical cure for ancient vampirism. Kate didn't have much hope for the latter.

"I have to help Santanico," Richie explains, as if she doesn't know that.

"Even if it means startin' an apocalypse? You're gonna destroy a country, a continent…I don't know, maybe even the world! For what? What has she ever given you?" Kate's eyes brim with tears, but they are from anger and frustration, not sadness.

Richie sits back this time. "You wouldn't understand."

"You're right. I don't." She sets her mouth and crosses her arms. "And unless you wanna show me, you can leave. I need to sleep. Do you even  _need_  to sleep? You're dead aren't you?" Her words are harsh, and even she's surprised with the ferocity behind them.

He doesn't reply, but the dream shatters and she's left in a dark, dreamless sleep.

8

Seth can be urgent. He has been dragging his feet, Kate knows this. But now, since she told him she had been with Richie, it is like he has a fire lit under him and he's itching to go. He wakes her up hours later. It's still dark out and the watch on her wrist says it's nearly three in the morning.

"What is it?" she grumbles, rubbing her eyes and pushing herself up on her elbows. He's rushing around the room, using just the light from the bathroom to keep from stubbing his toes on furniture.

"We need to go. We need to go  _now_ ," Seth says, shoving some clothes into a bag.

Kate blinks and pushes herself to a sitting position. She hates sleeping in jeans, but she's gotten used to it and stretches out her legs in front of her. "Why?"

"Richie is here. Santanico is here. We have to go after them,  _now_ , when we're all in the same place," he explains, an air of frustration in his voice at her constant questions.

"But…they know we're here. Richie knows, and he tells her everythin'," Kate points out.

Seth shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. Let's go."

Kate sighs and pushes herself to her feet.

"Sometime today," he pushes.

She glares at him and moves to the bathroom to smooth her hair back in a ponytail and grab her things. Seth almost physically removes her from the room once her bag is packed. They round the corner and find their car, windows bashed in, tires missing.

"Great," Seth mutters, tossing his bag forcefully on the ground. It's filled with his clothes and a number of weapons: stakes, guns, stake-guns… "Dammit. We need to get another car."

Kate nods. She knows the drill. They hitch their bags over their shoulders and head down the street. It's easier stealing cars down here in Mexico, but it's also easier to have yours stolen or wrecked.

There's little foot traffic and Kate keeps watch as Seth breaks into an older car. He knows all the good ones to steal, all the ones without alarm systems and he knows how to break into each and every make and model, even the Mexican ones. Kate wonders if it's an innate skill.

"He didn't say anything about where he was staying?" Seth asks once they're inside and he's pulled the car onto the road. Its gas tank is full, which is a surprise, since most of them have little gas that they find.

Kate rolls her eyes. "Do you really think he's that stupid? He's your brother. He's not gonna just stick around after that. He knows I'll tell you anythin' about him."

Seth slammed his palm against the steering wheel and cursed. "But they're close. And we can follow a pattern, they're heading south right?"

Kate nods. "Probably toward Isla de Sacrificios."

Seth glances over at her. "Why do you say that?" They have never talked about future plans or where the ending of Santanico's revenge would commence.

"Um…I went to a library, back in California," that night he had spoken brashly about her  _fantasies_  about Richie, "and I spent a lotta time going over all kinds of myths in Mexico. I think that island is a culmination of power for Santanico's gods."

Seth arches an eyebrow and looks over at her. "That so?"

She nods.

"When were you gonna tell me?"

Kate rubs her nose with her fingers and looks out the window. "It ain't like I'm keepin' things from you, Seth. It just didn't seem important until now. I can read a map, you know, I can tell what a pattern is." She glares at him from the corner of her eyes.

He lets out a breath through his lips and sakes his head. "Whatever. Where is this…Isla de Whatever?"

"Sacrificios," she supplies. "And it's off the coast of Boca Del Rio."

"Great," Seth mutters, just like he always does when he is unimpressed with something she has to say.

8

They don't know if they're ahead or behind Richie and Santanico, but the naturally, spurring on unnatural, disasters become more numerous and led them toward Kate's educated guess. It was better than anything Seth ever came up with, and it was leading them straight to Richie.

Kate hums along to whatever music they can get through the radio. It's all in Spanish, sometimes ballads, sometimes the very typical high pitched and ranged wind and string music that's more for dancing than singing. Seth watches her out of the corner of his eye and taps along against the steering wheel when he can't stand the idleness anymore.

He pulls the car to the side under midday sun to get food. Kate's sleeping in the passenger seat, having driven a good long stretch in the morning.

Her dreams are a muddle mess of memories and other dreams all wrapped up within each other. She hears Richie say things and feels his hands, softly curled against hers against the RV table, and also in other places, with that delicate softness that her mind always conjures up for him to have.

 _I don't want you to leave._  His face, close and open, always truthful, right in front of her on that club couch…

 _I don't know_. The words are simple, but shrouded in darkness. He doesn't know if he'll hurt her, but the hand moving up her thigh makes her fear stutter.  _You wouldn't hurt me, would you?_  The words leave her lungs in a gasp and she doesn't want to know the answer.

 _It won't hurt._  A kiss pressed against her knee.  _It feels like home._  Lips against her thigh.  _Your soul tastes like home_. Pricks against her skin and that euphoric bliss she makes up from all the teen movies and books.

Everything tastes like blood and cigarettes.

There's a knock against the window that jerks her awake. Her hands instantly reach inside her jacket for weapons, a knife, a stake, something…but she squints out the window and sees an old woman standing there, no teeth in her mouth, hair as white as snow. Kate blinks and she disappears. Frowning, she pushes open the car door and steps onto the dirt. The car door makes a hollow sound behind her as she closes it.

"Excuse me?" There is a voice, but it doesn't belong to an old lady, it belongs to man of middle age, reaching out to grab her arm. His hand doesn't frighten her. Kate can handle an overly affectionate man if she can handle a temple filled with culebra.

"Can I help you?" she asks, her voice strong and sturdy.

"My grandmother must speak with you," he says. His English is good, layered in a thick accent.

Kate stands her ground, her boot heels digging into the dirt. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

He shakes his head vigorously, thick dark hair flapping around his head. It doesn't look like fake hair. "No, but my grandmother, she—"

"Hey!" Seth's voice cuts through and Kate feels his hand on her other arm, pulling her toward him. She doesn't budge either way. "What's going on here?" His eyes are on the other man.

The man nods. "Señor Gecko," he says. Seth nearly baulks at the man who knew his name. "She told me you would also be here. Please, we must hurry."

"No, nu-uh, we're not going anywhere with you," Seth shakes his head and points a finger out into the distance. "Now let go of the girl and get lost."

"Seth," Kate cautions, shaking her head.

"She has the connection, my grandmother can feel it," the man explains.

"Wait, what connection?" Seth is always confused about these things. He isn't like Richie, he can't just accept these oddities happening around him, he needs definite answers.

"Her," the man waves at Kate, "to the culebra, the one with the devilish woman upsetting the gods."

Kate's eyes widen and Seth's fingers tighten around her arm. "Kate, we should go," he says, voice serious.

Kate stares at the man. He isn't lying. She can tell. "No," she says, her voice small, then again when it's stronger. "No. I need…I need to hear what he…she…they have to say."

The man nods enthusiastically. Seth sighs and hangs his head, but he lets go of Kate. "Fine. I'm bringing weapons," he says, moving toward the car to swap his bag of homemade tamales for a gun and knife.

They follow the man through the desert, through the leafless trees to a bungalow. It's made of mud and straw and looks extremely old. Kate hesitates, Seth beside her. The man walks toward the entrance and motions them inside, looking at them and waiting expectantly.

"Kate," Seth says, warningly. He puts his hand against her back, between her shoulder blades.

"What?" she whispers, turning her head to look up at him.

He moves quickly, lifting his hand to her face and pulling her toward him, his lips, scratchy and rough, pressing against hers, the stubble prickling against her skin. Kate's eyes fly open wide.

She shoves him away. "What the hell was that?!" she screams at him, backing away.

"Kate." Seth steps forward and she moves farther away. "My brother's a lost cause. I can—"

"What?!" Kate drags her hands angrily through her hair. "You think that's what this is about? No! It's not. Don't…don't come near me." He wouldn't understand. Just like Kate couldn't understand why Richie stayed with Santanico, Seth wouldn't understand what she and his brother had.

Kate wraps her arms around herself and turns, clenching her hands into fists against her sides and walking toward the dwelling. Inside, it smells of smoke and herbs, of dirt and clay. She hears Seth's boots crunching across dirt and rocks, disobeying her orders to stay away.

There is a woman standing in the middle of the single domed room. She looks no more than four feet tall, with a hunched back, skin as old as time and hair as white as snow. Kate recognized her from the split second image of her knocking on the car window.

The man walks past Kate and starts speaking in fast Spanish. The woman nods and smiles a toothless grin. Kate feels a smile appearing on her own face. The man turns to Kate and motions her forward.

"This is Contessa, she is one with the earth, she can read time like a book," the man explains. "And she has something to tell you."

The woman, Contessa, nods as Kate gets closer.

"Give her your hand," the man prods.

Kate doesn't think the woman can hurt her, so she does just that, reaching out her hand. The woman grips her wrist with fingers that are strong for her age, which Kate thinks is hovering around two hundred or so, and turns Kate's hand over. She leans in and licks Kate's palm.

Contessa's tongue is papery soft and dry, like a newborn puppy. Kate just stares, not moving, not breathing. It's as if she's transfixed, like she can feel the knowledge of centuries flowing from the woman like uncatchable gnats.

The woman closes her hand around Kate's and pulls her down until they are both sitting on a worn blanket in bright and bold colors and pattern. The man stands nearby, translating as though Contessa is speaking directly to Kate. And the woman is, but her Spanish is odd, so old that even with the familiarity Kate had with the language after the past few weeks, it sounds funny.

"You indeed have a connection to the culebra, the Gecko brother long thought lost. He may be a beast now, but he wasn't always so. And won't always be."

Kate's stomach jumps. Contessa drops her hand and moves to her feet, shuffling around searching for what looks like ingredients.

"What does that mean?" Kate asks.

The man translates and Contessa continues. "A culebra is one once alive, but now dead and reborn. There are strong forces of nature that can reverse such a thing. Not forever, but for some time. And it all begins with the girl."

Kate points to herself. "Me? Why me?"

"The connection," Seth grumbles behind her. "You and Richie…"

"Are you jealous?" she asks, wonder pushed aside for a moment as she glares up at him.

"Maybe. I also don't understand any of this shit," he says, waving his hand around.

"You don't have to, I do," Kate says.

"Has he tasted your blood?"

Kate blinks, the translated words startling her. "What? I mean…yes."

The woman nods, bringing over an earthen bowl, filled with ingredients. "Good. That is the only way this will work." She reaches for Kate's hand.

"How what will work? I don't understand," Kate stops short as Contessa produces a knife and cuts her palm. "Ouch!"

Her blood drips over the herbs and burns, smoke curling up from the bowl. Contessa begins to speak in words that sound nothing like Spanish and the man looks down at Kate.

"What is going on? Tell me!" she insists as her hand continues to bleed over the bowl. Contessa forces her fingers into a fist and covers Kate's hand with her own wizened old fingers.

"There is a long told tale, a myth, a prophecy," the man says.

"Oh here we go," Seth rolls his eyes in the corner. Kate reaches out with her free hand and punches him in the knee.

"A tale of two brothers, one taken by power and one left behind. They travel to defeat an ancient evil, in the form of a beautiful woman, and while they appear to have failed, they will not, they will prevail."

"What've I got to do with it?" Kate asks, easily placing Richie, Seth and Santanico into those roles.

"It is said that the brothers befriend a neutral good, a soul so pure that she can cure any demonic curses. She shares a connection with the brother bound by power, and it is her blood that will release him from his curse and end the plan of that ancient evil before it destroys the world."

Kate blinks and her hand stings, but she no longer hears Contessa chanting and she laughs. Laughter bubbles from her gut and she laughs until her eyes water and the only thing that makes her stop is Seth putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Kate gasps, though Contessa looks amused and Kate doesn't feel so sorry. "I just…what am I gonna do? I can't fight Richie."

"He will want to taste your blood again. It would have intrigued him. And when he does, he will return to how he was before."

The laughter fades quickly and Kate scrambles to her feet. Seth keeps his hand on her shoulder and she's too focused to push him away. "What? He'll be human again?" Kate asks.

The man nods. "Yes. It will not last, only because he will begin to die from whatever would have killed him before he was bitten and changed," he clarifies.

"So he'll still die?" Seth asks.

"Sadly, yes. But it will be less painful than a stake to the chest or any violent act. He will have a day or two at most, but he will be human again and he will no longer be vexed by whatever evil plagues him."

Kate could yell and jump for joy, she could cry and scream, too. She would be able to save him, he would die…but he would die human. She knew all along that Richie would never make it out of Mexico alive, but she would be able to free him…free him from whatever lingering compulsion Santanico has over him. She can do that. She is the key.

Contessa stands, the soupy, bloody contents of the bowl now in a smaller bowl. She hands it forward, arms outstretched.

"Um…" Kate hesitates, eyes flickering over to the translator.

"You must drink it," he says.

She makes a face, but the thought of saving Richie is enough to keep her moving forward. She takes the bowl and tries not to breathe. The thought of drinking so much blood, even her own, makes her stomach crawl, but she lifts the bowl to her mouth and drinks. The stuff is so potent that she almost gags but sucks it down, red drips spilling out of the corners of her mouth. She hands the bowl back and rubs her mouth and chin with the back of her hand.

"What now?"

8

The brothers in the myth outsmarted the evil woman all on her own. The pure soul played nothing but a part in giving the lost brother peace. Kate is okay with being that part, with giving Richie some form of everlasting peace. Her faith blossoms in her chest with this newfound knowledge.

If there was ever such a thing as a soulmate, she thought hers was Richie. It didn't mean that they had to be lovers or grow old together and have a house full of children, it went so much deeper than that, so much deeper than words.

So deep, that Kate was willing to do anything to save him.

8

She sleeps somehow, the excitement from learning she is going to save Richie falls away to exhaustion. Seth is still driving toward Baco Del Rio. Kate slips into a dream that isn't a dream and she knows that Richie is there. Her words from their last encounter sting Kate's mind but she doesn't let that stop her from acting as casual as usual.

They're by the pool again, but not in the chairs. He's standing at the edge of the pool and she's walking by him, having just emerged. It was a picture perfect from memory.

"I know what you really think of me," he says. He has his glasses on again, and this feels so much more like a memory than a dream.

Kate looks over her shoulder at him. "What do I think of you?" she asks. She wants to feel so different, she feels confident but there is a waver of uncertainty under her tone.

"You think I want to be saved," he says. "I have a plan, I don't need to be saved."

Kate blinks, knowing she should reach down for her towel, but she turns around instead. Her body is dripping with chlorine water and her hair is in dregs around her face and shoulders. "What's your plan?" she asks. "Tell me."

 _The brothers beat the evil at their own game_.

Richie has a plan. Was the myth and prophecy coming true right before her eyes? She hopes it is, because it means she can save him.

He shakes his head. "No," he says, reaching his hand into his jacket.

Kate moves toward him, standing in front of him in a few steps. Her hands press against his chest. He's warm, the sun glowing around him. It's easy to forget that the Richie controlling this dream is far from the person she sees in front of her. "Please?"

Richie lifts his hand from his jacket, empty. "That's not what you want me to show you."

Kate looks up at him. "No?" She almost laughs. "Then what do I want you to show me, Richie?"

"Everything. I think," he says in true Richie fashion.

"Everything," Kate echoes, because she can feel his hand slide around her bare back and it pulls her closer. She's waited so long for him to kiss her again, she doesn't care if this was a dream, it doesn't matter. He tilts her head up and she pushes herself to her toes, her hands gripping the lapels of his jacket and they meet somewhere in the middle.

Everything is sparks and intensity that rocks Kate to her core. She doesn't think of how this isn't real, because it feels real, even as the public pool space fades away to something softer. Her room back at home. Her bed is simple, as is the rest of the room, but it isn't childish and it isn't some dark fantasy belonging to Santanico, so Kate doesn't care.

Her father is dead and her room hasn't been touched in a month, but she doesn't care. She clings to Richie like he's the only thing holding her to the earth and her world moves with him. And whatever oddities and lack of human connection that Richie had, didn't show itself here.

He knows just how to press his fingers into her skin the same way she knows how to unbutton his shirt without looking. There is a frenzy, even though there is no danger of being caught, her family is dead and gone, but it's there. It's the way the kisses go from soft to hard and deep, twisting around her core, and she just follows. It's nothing like kissing Kyle, and why should it?

Her hands push his shirt off his shoulders, his jacket along with it. Kate's hands smooth over his bare shoulders and she breaks for air, her lungs craving more than hasty split-second breaths. The space between them is too much. Seconds later, his hands circle around her waist, his fingers reaching fully around and she has her legs hooked around his hips and her arms around his neck, her fingers reaching down his spine.

He's warm in all the right places, but still rugged and dangerous. He killed people when he was human, a thought that Kate used to battle with, but it doesn't matter. Not anymore. He's going to die soon, and Kate didn't mind losing herself to him vicariously through some mystical mental bonding.

Her bare skin presses against his and he's moving them toward the bed. It's barely big enough for the both of them but staying close isn't an issue. Kate's bikini top falls away at his fingertips and Kate feels the bed beneath her. She runs her hand through the hair at the base of his neck and kisses him again, but he moves away and kisses her neck until she moans, his hands roaming down her ribcage. She grips his hair and his lips cross over the spot where he bit her, though in the dream her skin is flawless, not broken by scars gained in the slaughter at the temple or anything since then.

His touch trails down, over her breasts, down the center of her torso, over her belly button and then he's gone. Kate squirms and blinks. The room is dim, but she can see enough. He's not gone, but his touch is and the air grows cool. It reminds her too much of how he really was now, and even the warm touch of his skin against her legs, pulling off the rest of her bikini isn't enough to shake that sinking feeling. That is, until he kisses her again and his glasses are still there, reminding her that he's human, that he needs them to see really anything. She knows this isn't real, but it's as real as anything she would ever get and it's much better than her one mind could imagine.

It is  _so_  much more than she could ever imagine. Even though she knows that the dreamlike feeling made this unreal, she still wants to accept it as real. How easily her body molds to his skin, the way she arches up against his chest and the weight of him and the sounds of their combined breathing. Her legs hook over his hips and she begs against his lips until he pushes himself inside of her and catches her moans with his mouth, pressing the back of her hand against the mattress, their fingers intertwined. She gasps until she can't breath and moves with him in ways that a preacher's daughter should never move.

And then she pushes him off and onto his back and she settles down on top of him and kisses his jaw and neck and chest until he's saying her name softly and they're feeling the same feelings. She moves in ways that she doesn't know how she knows, but it feels amazing. Her hair falls around their faces, her hands on either side of his face, and she's kissing him long and hard, his hands gripping her hips. She makes him lose control, her thumb trailing over his bottom lip, her hair shadowing her face from him, and she's never seen Richie flustered or out of control and that spurs her own blossoming of lightning and shuddering stardust.

Kate moves her thumb and kisses him again and then they're laying there all sweaty, warm bodies. The world could come down around them and they wouldn't notice. "I need to know where you are," Kate says, the darkness growing darker in the corners of her room.

The backs of their hands are touching between them.

"You can't," he says.

Kate licks her lips. "Why not?" She looks over, turning her head. She can see his profile, bordered by his black rimmed glasses.

"You don't know what I'm trying to do," he says, like always. Intentionally turning her away, pushing her away from him. She should be used to that by now.

Kate lifts her hand and brushes the back of her knuckles down the side of his face. "I want you to bite me," she says, her voice stronger than she imagined it would be.

"What?"

The darkness is getting closer, eating away at the memory of the room.

"When I find you, I want you to bite me. I didn't mind it last time," she says. The scariest part is that she doesn't think any part of that is a lie. "I know how you feel. I can see that now. Don't you want to get close to me?"

Richie lets out a breath. "I want you to be close enough where you don't have to guess how I feel," he says.

Kate's lips part as the darkness crawls toward the bed, having eaten up the rest of the room. "Then let me," she gets out before the darkness encompasses them and she wakes up.

8

Seth had carried her to their last hotel room. She slept soundlessly in the car, according to him, which she is grateful for, knowing just how much noise was going on in her mind when she was asleep. "Where are we?" she asks, after she comes out of the bathroom, trying to both memorize and forget the feeling of Richie's hands and lips all over her.

"Boca Del Rio," Seth says, pushing open the curtain over the window. "Our ticket into mythical prophecy."

Kate shakes her head slightly and sits on the end of the bed. "Richie's supposed to have a plan to stop Santanico before she can anger the last of the gods," she says, clasping her hands together between her knees.

"Oh sure, rely on my brother to save the world."

Kate frowns. "Don't you trust him? Weren't your solo jobs always a bust? Ain't Richie the one who came up with all of the best plans?"

Seth looks over at her begrudgingly, like he was trying to forget just what she decided to bring up. "Sure, but he hasn't been the same since he busted me out," Seth tries to explain.

Kate shakes her had. "It doesn't matter. We need to trust him. I know…we both know Richie isn't soft about killin' people but do you think he would let millions die just because of one ancient snake lady?" She raises an eyebrow and Seth cocks a grin.

"Gotta hope not."

8

Isla de Sacrificios. She can see it in the distance. It looks like any other island, with trees covering the surface and a small lighthouse. Seth pulled the car to the side of the road that ran the along the coast five minutes ago. He is pacing back and forth, talking on the phone. Kate crosses her arms, the wind chilly coming off the Gulf.

Kate sucks in a breath that fills her lung to burst, but she lets it out beforehand and wonders what's going to happen. Is Richie already in the port city? Is he over on that island? She doesn't know what awaits them there; an underground temple, long forgotten and filled with warm Gulf water? Are there culebra swarming around there, too? Suffocating and unable to die?

Kate tightens her arms and twists her torso to see Seth over the roof of the car. He's just hanging up his phone. "Is everything okay?" she asks.

He shakes his head and curses under his breath, shoving the phone in his pants pockets. "Whatever," he dismisses. "It doesn't matter." He joins her on the other side of the car, leaning against the fender and pointing over at the spot of land in the distance. "That it?"

Kate nods. "Yeah."

Seth looks skeptical. "The  _Island of Sacrifices?_  It looks like a spot off Maine."

Kate agrees with him. It doesn't look like the place where the end of the world would come from. Maybe she had gotten it wrong? But Contessa and her translating relative approved of her plan, telling her to follow what she thought, what pulled at her soul, because it would bring them to where they needed to be.

"So am I just the chauffer in this whole prophecy myth bullshit?" Seth asks after a few moments of silence spread out in front of them.

Kate looks over at him. "What d'you mean?"

Seth rolls his eyes. "C'mon, you're the  _pure soul_  that's supposed to help save my brother, my brother is…somehow, possibly gonna save the world after starting the apocalypse with his creaky old bed buddy and I'm just….driving you around."

"That's not true," Kate says. "The prophecy speaks of two brothers savin' the world, goin' into the underworld and beatin' the gods at their own game. So…I think you're the one who has to go to that island. I need to stay here to play my part after you bring Richie back." She speaks with a fierce determination. There's nothing false about it. She has to believe that Richie will come back so that she can save him. Even just for a few days, so he can die human.

"Really?" Seth moves to stand in front of her, blocking her view of the island. "Are you serious?"

Kate nods. "I am."

He glances down at her crossed arms. If she doesn't know any better, she'd say he was looking at her chest, but he knew she would knee him in the balls if he did that again. "Your soul telling you that?" He doesn't  _really_  believe all of the mythical and mystical things going on around him, not as easily as Kate and even Richie could.

Kate nods again. "Yeah. So let's get to the nicest hotel we can find, okay? If we're gonna help save the world, may as well go out in style right?"

Seth shakes his head but he laughs and moves to the driver's seat. "Whatever you say, sweetheart."

8

The hotel is a renovated older building, expensive inside and not anything like the huge generic sky scrapers of California or even Austin. Seth buys them a room with two beds, like usual, and walks Kate upstairs. It's such a change from the raggedly hotels they had spent the last few weeks living in and Kate almost flops back onto one of the beds but she feels disgusting and covered in dirt so she refrains and faces Seth.

"You'll be fine," she tells him.

"You think?" he asks. He looks so different from when she first met him. He lost the suit ages ago, and he looks so much more normal and less of a bank robber in jeans and t-shirts.

"Yeah," she nods. "And I'm not just sayin' that. I have a feeling. It will be fine. The brothers succeeded in the prophecy…so you have to. You'll do anything' you can, I know it."

Seth nods and glances around the room. "Right. I go crawling to an island filled with ancient sacrificial grounds, and you get to sit here in these nice digs."

Kate tilts her head to the side and smiles. "It's about time. I've been doin' all the work here," she teases lightly. She steps closer and puts her hand on his shoulder, leaning up and kissing his cheek before she falls back on her heels. "You'll be fine."

He nods and looks like he wants to say something else but he just mutters "Yeah" and leaves.

8

Kate doesn't know how she can be so relaxed when the fate of the world is in the hands of two criminals, but she can. She stripped off her clothes almost the moment Seth left the room and had been laying in the bath for an hour after taking a hasty shower. She'll have to wash away the soap and extra dirt after the bath, but it smells heavenly and she even dozes in the tub.

She can't  _feel_  anything, and her dreams are meaningless and empty. Maybe because her sleep is so light. She wakes up when she slips a little farther into the tub and her nose meets the surface of the water. She sputters awake and feels the bath around her cold. Standing up, she lets the water drain out and pulls the curtain around the stand alone porcelain tub to keep the spray of water from blanketing the bathroom. She scrubs her skin until it feels new again and washes her hair for the third time. It finally feels clean for the first time since she and Seth were in San Diego.

She pulls on a fluffy white bathrobe and walks softly into the room. It's huge and empty. She walks to the window and finds that she can barely see the island from here. She can squint. It still looks to be in one piece, and the lighthouse is still standing. She tries to stop her stomach from twisting around in knots, but she can't help it.

She sits down on one of the beds and flips on the television, needing some distraction. She can understand words here and there, but she tries to follow the story of the telemovie that came on just by emotion and actors. Her hands move through her hair and pretty soon she's French braiding it, pulling it tight against her scalp and forcing herself off the bed to find a tie to synch the bottom with.

She has been by Seth and Richie this whole time, but a deep part of her knows that this is right. They need to do this alone, they have to fix this without her. And she has to pray that Seth will bring Richie back, willing or not.

Kate falls asleep again and is woken up by a shaking. Not of her, but of her entire room. It feels like an earthquake. The jolt in her stomach makes her run to the window. She squints against the dusk and sees the lighthouse on Isla de Sacrificios collapse. Kate gasps. Something big is happening. And it's so far away.

She can only stay glued to the window until the shaking stops and she can see the puff of dust and smoke curl above the island. Her fingertips grip the windowsill. "Come on, you stupid criminals," she mutters under her breath.

8

Kate sits on the end of one of the beds, fully dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, her legs bouncing in anticipation. She thinks of all of the things that could go wrong. Maybe neither of the brothers are going to come back. Maybe she had drank those herbs mixed with her own blood for no reason at all. She shivers at the memory, of the taste and smell.

This can't all be for nothing. The loss of her brother, the death of her father…it cannot be for nothing. Seth needs to drag Richie through the hotel lobby and up to this room and Kate needs to see them both alive and well for a few hours at least. She needs it more than she can describe with words. While her life was never perfect, now that she's looking back on it, she needed to finish this, to gain some normalcy. She isn't sure she will ever be able to become a normal person, but she can maybe return to the States and not have to worry about fighting culebra all of the time.

She still wants to fight culebra though. But maybe if she moves to New York City or San Francisco, they won't be on every street corner and she can try to make it on her own…maybe she can chalk up this past month to a nightmare or just a bad vacation.

Maybe she can forget the Gecko brothers.

8

Kate jerks awake when someone bangs through the door. She reaches for weapons that are in the bags across the room and blinks blearily into the dark room. She scrambles to her feet when she sees who it is.

Seth. And Richie.

Both are covered in blood, Seth has open wounds on his face and arms, but Richie's skin has healed already.

"Oh my God," Kate breathes out. Seth leans back against the door, pushing it closed, and groans, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Richie has stumbled farther into the room without any of his usual grace, human or otherwise. Kate reaches for the light switch on the wall and the lamps on either side of the beds light up.

Kate's eyes grow wide. Richie's shirt is slashed open and there's so much blood she's sure that he should be dead, but he isn't. Well, technically he is, but she can still save him from that fate.

"What happened? Did you…did you stop it?  _What happened?_ " Kate demands, clenching her hands into fists, her nails biting into her palms.

"Almost died, that's what happened," Seth shoots forth from his slumped place against the door.

"What happened?" Kate repeats a third time, tearing her eyes from Seth, who looks like he won't bleed out if she takes a minute to figure out what went on on that island. She looks up at Richie, who is watching her strangely. She doesn't think anything of it, her eyes hard and seasoned behind the softness of her age. She's long since gotten used to the sight of so much blood. "Is the world goin' to end, or not? Because, I'd like to shower again if it is."

Seth chuckles from his corner, trying to walk forward, gripping the wall for support.

"Would I let millions of people die for one culebra?" Richie says, his voice with a side of coldness and clarity.

Kate sizes him up, the blood, the suit, tattered and missing the jacket. She tries to ignore how much blood is smeared across his face and down his neck. "I don't know, would you?" she asks, echoing a dream she had that he wasn't a part of.

He doesn't know, but she wonders if he can still feel what she's feeling right now, the aggravation and relief. "No," he says finally.

Seth's leaning against the wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. "Bitch is  _free_  now," he says, looking at Kate. "And by free I mean dead. I think the gods or whatever the fuck are pleased with that last sacrifice, huh?" He shoots his eyes toward Richie. There's aggravation and relief in Seth's voice too. Kate wonders if he's forgiven Richie for leaving him for a girl.

"Probably," Richie says.

Seth nods. "I'm gonna need Kate for a minute." He walks toward the closest bed and collapses on the edge, pulling off his shirt and revealing more blood and smaller wounds. Kate walks over to the duffle bags and finds the first aid kit that she always kept stocked. Richie walks over to the window and stays there.

Kate wets down towels and she and Seth wash the blood off of most of him and Kate decides which wounds are deep enough for stitches and keeps Seth awake with whiskey. She wordlessly works and Seth accepts her help, not complaining as the needle and thread slide through his skin. Kate doesn't flinch against the blood and finishes quickly. She pushes bandages over the wounds so they won't bleed all over the nice bed covers and he moves himself farther back onto the bed.

"Don't do anything creepy or weird while I'm passed out," he says, just before doing that. He doesn't move, laying on his back and his eyes closed, his body loosening muscles from whatever fight occurred on the island.

Richie hadn't moved from the window the whole time, so still it was eerie.

Kate cleans up, giving herself a mental note to leave extra money to replace the bloody towels, and then steps out of the bathroom back into the main room. Richie is feet away but it feels like an eternity of space between them. She walks toward him, past a sleeping Seth and stops right behind him.

"Richie," she says quietly.

She sees him blink in the reflection on the window. He turns a little, lit up by the moon and the lamps. She can't help but reach out and touch him, to make sure that he hasn't been standing here bleeding out. But no, he appears fine.

"Maybe you should shower," she suggests. His skin is cold under her hands and she takes them back. They're stained red again.

He looks down at her and she wonders what he's thinking of. What had just happened? What had happened between them in that dream the other night? Was Kate that selfish to think that he would be thinking of her at such a time? She tries not to let it show.

"You're probably right," he finally says and he sounds completely normal. He moves away from her and she catches sight of his back as he pulls off his shirt. He leaves the bathroom door open but she stays by the window until she has to sit, her knees beginning to shake. She rubs her palms and tries to keep it together. She can't cry now, she can't back down from what she was destined to do.

She eventually sinks to the floor and leans against the mattress, whispering out the same prayer she said with Richie in the RV, in what felt like another lifetime.

"Our lord who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…"

She stops there again, because the shower stops running. She pushes her hands through her hair, having been taken down out of the braid by her nervous fingers while awaiting the return of the brothers. She moves to her feet again and grips the edge of the mattress as she sits down, the backs of her legs pressed against the side.

Richie walks into the hotel room, a stark white towel around his waist. Kate thinks he looks better in person than in her dreams, if that was even possible, but then again, she had been making most of that up. Or maybe not…she didn't know just how deeply that connection they had went. But that is beside the point. The point is that Richie is standing two feet away from her, water droplets running down his chest in nothing but a towel.

"Did you mean it?" he asks. Seth is completely out just feet away on the other bed. Kate glances from him up to Richie's face. He still looks so different without his glasses and his hair is messed from the shower, not slicked back like it usually was.

"Did I mean what?" she echoes.

His eyes roam from her gaze to her neck, and she reminds herself that he's still a culebra and she has one last thing to do.

"Yes," she answers before he can, because she realizes what he's asking. Contessa said that he wouldn't be able to resist tasting her blood again, it was so pure that it was like a drug. And Richie was going to be in for one hell of a ride the moment her blood mixed with his.

He actually steps back when Kate stands. "Just tell me one thing," she says, negotiation written all over her face. "How did you…" She can't finish because she doesn't know what she's asking, she wasn't there.

Richie glances down for a moment and runs his fingertips across where the huge rip in his shirt had been, over his abdomen. "The blooded snake from the sarcophagus," he says and Kate tries not to think about how Seth told her Richie had  _swallowed_  said snake filled with blood to free Santanico, "I cut it out. And sacrificed it first. And then I killed her." He speaks with that same precise nature she was still not used to.

But it sounds right and she nods because she wants to be able to save him and she needs to do this before she gives herself away. Killing people and culebra isn't something that she thinks twice about any more, and she can't dwell on what type of person that makes her. Instead, she steps forward slightly.

"Okay," she says.

Richie wraps his fingers around her wrist and pulls her toward him, strong still, despite the obviously large amount of blood that he lost in the battle. He probably drank enough of it to replenish, but Kate tries not to think about that. He pulls her and her back touches his chest. She feels water drops seep through her shirt and his skin is warm because of the shower. She sucks in a breath.

"Tilt your head," he says, holding her tightly across the chest with her own arm captive. She closes her eyes and does so, and his fingers push aside her hair.

 _Don't do anything creepy or weird while I'm passed out_ , Seth said. Well…thank God he is blacked out and not seeing any of this.

She's glad she can't see Richie's face change, just how much it forms into something monstrous, and she knows what to expect when she feels the pricks. It's like she can feel her life force trying to be lifted out of her body. She lifts her free hand and grips his wrist that's holding her hand firmly against her shoulder and squeezes her eyes shut, her knees feeling weak. She hopes he doesn't kill her. But if he does, at least she can die knowing he would also die human, just like her.

But he doesn't kill her. He stops and releases her. Kate's hand clasps over her neck as she leans over and reaches out for the bed, moving herself onto the mattress, pulling one leg under her, the other hanging off the side. "Do I still taste like home?" she asks softly, not knowing what to expect.

His face is normal, human, but she can tell he knows something is different about her blood. Maybe it is some sort of aftertaste, but his eyebrows move together and she prays that he won't kill her for what she has just done to him. He blinks wildly like he's trying to get his eyes to focus. He manages to move forward and sit on the bed, on the other corner. Kate holds in a gasp as she watches his skin shift into scales then back to flesh, like he's having visible chills.

"What…did you just do?" he asks finally, though his voice is strained and spoken with such effort.

She will risk him using his strength against her and moves across the mattress on her knees as a headache grows behind her eyes. She presses her hands against his back and slides them around his ribcage. She coaxes him back farther on the mattress and he moves with her until he's laying back blinking up at the ceiling. She wonders if his vision is returning to its human depredation.

"I can't be sorry," she says softly, wrapping her fingers around his hand at his side as she lies out beside him, propped up on her elbow, her fist pressing against her temple. "I had to save you, okay?" It doesn't look like he can move very much and he's fighting against whatever wants to pull him under so he can wake up…alive and human.

He frowns but can't win the battle, his eyes closing.

Kate leans close and kisses the corner of his mouth, a hint of copper there that tastes like her soul.

8

Her own exhaustion made her fall asleep beside him, her hand still holding his. Seth wakes her up and she squints into the morning light.

"Go get something to eat," he says. He doesn't need to say anything else. He can see the wounds on her neck and the state his brother is in.

Kate nods, unable to disagree because she is starving and her body needs replenishment. She takes some money and leaves the hotel room. Her legs feel like Jello but she keeps walking. She manages to ask someone where she can buy some food and she finds a grocery store and a restaurant. She wonders if Richie will want to eat food when he wakes up. Unless he doesn't wake up.

She shakes her head. She can't think of that. All her hard work, her  _destiny_ …it all pointed toward giving Richie a day at least of human life. She has to believe that he will be alive when she returns to the hotel.

8

Kate doesn't know how long she's gone, but she has bags on her arms filled with food when she hikes up the hill to the hotel. Seth is outside, leaning against the corner of the building, a cigarette in his hand. Kate knows he doesn't smoke, at least not that she remembers in the past few weeks they've been together.

"Seth?" she says, walking over to him.

His eyebrows raise in recognition of his name and he turns toward her as she walks close, the bags sliding down to her hands and hanging by her sides. "Hey," he says. As if he hadn't just saved the world from the wrath of ancient gods.

"Hey, what're you—"

He speaks again, interrupting her, the smoke from the cigarette curling through the air. "You know what? We were supposed to be done, after that fucking temple across the border. I was done."

Kate blinks. "What do you mean?"

"With Richie, okay? He chose Santanico over me. I was done. I told him that. And then you had to insist we had to play hero." He waves a hand toward her.

So that was why it took so long to convince him that they had to save Richie. Kate wonders what had changed his mind. What had she done or said to make him come with her? She isn't going to apologize for making him save the world or Richie. She straightens her back and looks at him straight on. "How's Richie?" she asks.

"He's fine," Seth grumbles.

Kate bites her bottom lip between her teeth. "Is he…" she doesn't know how to ask if he's human, not now, not with Seth being so prickly.

"Go see for yourself," he shoves a room key in her direction. "I'll be at a bar."

She doesn't stop him as he walks around her, flicking the butt of the cigarette onto the cobblestone. She doesn't tell him that it's the morning and he shouldn't be drinking. Instead, she just takes her few bags of food and the room key and goes inside. She wonders if anyone was at the front desk when Seth and Richie came in, covered in blood. Probably not, considering they managed to get upstairs without being stopped. At least, as far as she knew.

The building only has three floors, and she takes the stairs to the third floor where their room is. She pauses outside, taking in deep, even breaths, her hand hovering with the key. She bites down hard on her bottom lip to convince herself that this is real, that she can only hope that what she finds on the other side of this door is something close to what she has imagined. She can only hope that Seth didn't do anything stupid while she was gone.

Taking in one final breath, Kate unlocks the door and walks through, turning around to close it softly. She lets out that breath as she turns around to face the rest of the room. She hears the TV and sees Richie. He's alive, or at least, Seth hadn't killed him, and he's sitting on the end of the bed, his right hand holding a torn apart towel over his left.

"Hi," she says, because she can't think of anything else to say. She puts the grocery bags on the small round table near the door and leaves the room key there.

"I wasn't expecting that," he says. The volume is low on the TV, but Kate doesn't even look at it, her eyes are on Richie. He's dressed, though the white t-shirt and jeans really make him look different. He has his glasses on too, and she wonders where he got them—hadn't they gotten broken? and was he the one to keep them for this long? —but that seems too trivial to ask so she doesn't. She stands and waits. "I  _should_  have, but you're pretty good at distracting me."

Kate can't even cross her arms, she just stands there, three feet away, looking at him like she can't believe it actually worked. Because it had to have worked, he's wearing his glasses and she tries to remember the injuries he had before Santanico bit him. He always had that bandage wrapped around his left hand. Contessa said he would return with the injuries he had before he turned into a monster, and Kate didn't know the extent of that, but apparently it meant more than the injury that caused his death.

"It was all part of this prophecy," she says, her voice more even than she thought it would be. "I was supposed to. And I wanted to."

He turns his head then, looking up at her. He just looks at her, no longer the totally sweet, innocent kidnapping victim she had been for a majority of their time together. It had been just hours, but it felt like an eternity when Kate looks back at it. And she wonders what Richie thinks, what he thinks about, how much he thinks about her, because she has to convince herself that this isn't some teenage fantasy, that she isn't just making up whatever it was that is between them…

"What if I never wanted to be human again?" he asks finally.

Kate tries not to show what her sacrifice meant. She thinks of the blur of the last few weeks and tries to figure out a way not to sound as hurt as she feels. She tilts her head slightly to the side. "I couldn't let you die as somethin' other than human," she says, because it's as simple as that.

"I could have lived a long time. I could have done a lot things," he points out, but he doesn't sound angry. He rarely did sound angry, even when he was angry, it was fairly subtle, his anger. Kate remembers it well.

"And you would've died a monster. I don't care," she crosses her arms in defiance, "I did what I thought was right."

Richie nods and glances down, unwrapping the towel from his hand and lifting it. From where she stands, she can see what looks like a bullet wound, half healed. Right through the middle of his left hand. She reminds herself that it is half healed, and it's only going to get worse.

"This part of your deal?" he asks, moving his fingers.

Kate swallows and nods. "Yes. You get turned back to human. And it's like…you're taken from history, from right before you died," she says. She doesn't know how she keeps her voice steady, but she does. "The same injuries, everythin'. They come back slowly."

"So I have to die twice? The first time was painful enough," he says, eyes moving to his hand, held out in front of him. If this happened in two hours, how much longer would it take until he could see through his hand again? And how much longer until…Kate doesn't actually know what killed him, she had left to find Scott before that happened. Seth never told her.

"I'm sorry," Kate says softly. "I don't want you to be in pain. I just…I couldn't let you keep walkin' around, killin' people. And I'm smart enough to know that you would kill people, I don't think you'd ever try not to." She didn't mean it as a bad thing, it just felt like facts falling off her tongue.  _Except me_ , she says to herself. Though, now that she's thinking of it, he would probably kill her if say, they were the only two people locked up somewhere. When he was a culebra, he would have needed to kill her, maybe not at first, but eventually, because they need blood to survive, and a lot of it. A sickening amount.

"I understand," Richie says finally. He wraps his hand up again and Kate blinks at him. It can't be that easy.

"That's it?" she asks.

He raises his eyebrows over the frame of his glasses and keeps his eyes steady on her. "Yeah. There's nothing I can do right? Unless I find someone else willing to bite me again. But I think we killed most of the culebra in this area over on that island."

Kate takes a step back. "You remember everythin' that happened the past few weeks?" she asks. She doesn't know what this reverting-to-human thing will do to him, besides kill him, and she knows she's eating up precious time, but she needs to know. She needs to understand what she just took away and gave back to him.

"With inhuman clarity," he says, standing up. He looks at her with a signature intensity. They both know what she was asking about and what he meant with his reply.

She backs up again and glances over her shoulder at the bags sitting on the table. "You should eat somethin'," she says, stepping back until her spine touches the wall.

"What did you get?"

8

They both eat, though Kate doesn't know how she can stomach food. She bought some premade things, tamales and tacos and a bottle of chilled horchata that Richie is practically gleeful over. And everything feels kind of normal, which is weird. They're both human now, Kate did her part in ruining Richie's immortal life, but she thinks maybe he'll get over it, but maybe not. He could have offered the world so much more, but she thinks that his brain would have suffered and his genius would become clouded by bloodlust and he wouldn't be able to offer much of anything but calculated destruction in his wake.

"How bad is this supposed to get?" Richie asks once they've both demolished more than half of what she bought. She was a lot hungrier than she realized, even though her body was still in a state of shock because her  _blood_  had transformed someone from a monster to a human again.

"It's supposed to be slow. I really don't know how painful it will be," she replies, unable to even think of eating another bite. Her body is craving nutrients to help kickstart the energy it would take to replenish her blood supply. She wonders how long those herbs and the magical properties would stay in her blood. Forever?

Richie nods and sits back against the chair. He doesn't look like that big of a person sitting down, but compared to Kate…she tilts her head to the side and waits. She can see he has something on the end of his tongue that he wants to say.

"Good thing I died once. I'll know what to expect," he says with a shrug. He tightens the cloth around his hand with his fingers and teeth and Kate stands, bunching up all of the wrappers from their food in her hands and putting them in the trashcan. "Where's Seth?"

Kate takes a deep breath, her back to him, before she turns. "Out. He's mad at me. He'll probably be gone for a few hours. If he doesn't get himself killed, he'll come back stumblin' drunk." She has never actually seen Seth stumbling drunk, but the way he left her outside, she wouldn't put it past him to get that trashed.

"Hmm." Richie nods. The TV is still playing softly filling the room with Spanish. Kate finds it annoying so she walks over and turns it off. She slides the remote onto the top of the dresser beside the television and sits down on the edge of the bed, gripping the edge of the mattress with her hands, her head bowed, her hair falling on either side of her face.

"What did it feel like?" she asks. She doesn't need to specify what she's asking. She watches the carpet as his words wash over her.

"More powerful than anything you could imagine. Godlike even. Everything was clearer, sharper, I could think easier."

"Maybe that's because she wasn't messin' with your mind any more," Kate says softly, even though she's still sure that Santanico was messing with Richie's mind until the end. Only, he was stronger than she'd anticipated and look what happened to her.

"Maybe," he half-agrees with her. "Everyone's soul tasted differently. But I tried not to think about it. Made me feel too bad."

The corner of Kate's mouth twitches upward.

"And…being able to able to feel you was an incredibly powerful thing. I don't even know why. I barely know you."

Not anymore. Kate figures they know each other pretty well, considering the circumstances. "My soul is pure," she says, looking up and finding him standing just beside her, her hair having blocked sight of him. "Whatever connection we have…it's always been there." She thinks of when they first met, out at the Dew Drop Inn by the pool. She felt reckless and dangerous for the first time in her life. And she really liked that feeling. "You said you wanted me to feel what you were feelin', remember?"

That was a whole other place and time, at that godforsaken bar built on top of the temple. Richie felt like he belonged, really belonged, and she craved to know how that felt.  _I don't want you to leave. I want you to feel what I'm feeling_. Those were his exact words, echoing through her mind.

"Yeah," he says. "I remember."

"Maybe I'm your tether, maybe I made you feel more human when you weren't. I dunno. I just…I believe that many things can happen that we don't understand or have control over. And you said I feel like home, right?" Not Seth,  _her_. She tries not to make this all about her, but she can't help it. She's scrambling at smooth walls to figure out what has been drawing her to Richie, ever since he curled his fingers around hers in the RV. Ever since she couldn't tell whether she didn't want Scott to shoot him because she didn't want Scott to become a killer, or because she didn't want to see Richie dead.

His exact words were that she tasted like home but that didn't apply now. He was human and Kate didn't want him as a culebra.

"Do I still feel like home?" she asks, watching him as he moves to stand in front of her. He's so much taller than her she has to almost lean back to see his face.

"Yeah, you do," he says. He doesn't sound much like a criminal mastermind right now.

Kate swallows. "I don't know how soon you'll die, I think it depends on—"

"What killed me," he finishes. He touches his chest where the Ranger's bullet tore through him. "Bullet, here."

Kate's eyes move from his face to where his fingers landed, and she stares. She tries not to think of how painful reliving getting shot and bleeding out will be. Everything has a catch, and she should have known this wasn't going to be as painless and easy as Contessa made it seem.

"You could have a day, or two, I don't really know," she says, staring at his chest like she's expecting blood to start seeping out then and there. But this is a slow process, she can tell that much. There are smudges of red bleeding through the rag around his hand as the wound begins to unheal.

"Should we try this for real?" he asks.

Kate blinks, because she's thinking of blood and when he'll die and he barely seems fazed. He's not even angry with her. "What?" she asks, turning her head upward.

He's reaching his hand toward her already, his fingers hooking around the back of her neck. He has so far to lean down that he pushes her back and she has to press her palm against the mattress behind her to keep from falling backward. He kisses her and it's so much better than their shared dream. She loses her breath. It's like a wildfire has been lit across her skin and he wasn't even touching her yet.

His hand and his mouth were warm, not faked, but really, truly, humanly warm. She slides her free hand around his wrist and feels the warmth spread from his skin.

"Richie," she says, her voice airy. She slowly opens her eyes and he's right there. She isn't imaging this. She doesn't know what to say. There's no reason for them not to do this. He is going to die and Kate already knows that it will feel like a part of her dies along with him, so she, they have to take advantage of whatever time is left. Because Richie is here and not going after Seth. Because he was choosing another girl over his brother but Kate doesn't even feel guilty or shameful about it. So instead, she says, "Don't bleed all over me. Promise?" She meant it lightly, though joking around was never one of her strong suits, she was always so serious, but she means it, thinking of how his chest could start bleeding anytime.

"I'll do my best," he says.

And then she's moving back on the bed and he's following. Things aren't soft and sweet, but they're not as rushed as their shared dream. Kate knows how this goes, she knows how to make him moan out her name and he knows more than she does but neither of them have any complaints. It's nothing like Kate ever thought it would be. Sex was always a taboo, being a preacher's daughter and all, but Kate's world had changed so much in the past month that she didn't even feel like that girl anymore.

She  _feels_  everything ten times more intensely than in her mind. She didn't think it was possible, but it is and she takes it all in. Her soul thrums and she wonders if Richie's feels the same, if he wonders why it is her soul that calls out to his or not. She can't help it, her mind whirling a mile a minute, even as she digs her nails into his skin and arches her back. She thinks of everything all at once.

8

Seth comes back hours later, not nearly as drunk as Kate expected. Richie's hand has its hole back and Kate does her best to wrap it tightly. The fatal bullet shot hasn't shown itself yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Seth finds them with the television on. Kate is leaning back against the headboard, hair damp and hanging around her face, ankles crossed in a pair of shorts she found at the bottom of one of the duffle bags. Richie is likewise on the bed, though he's laid out against the mattress, his head resting on her stomach because he wants to be close to her soul, he said. Kate doesn't mind, and doesn't even think of the little bit of crazy left over from Santanico messing with his mind.

"Gross," is the first thing Seth says before he slams the bathroom door closed and Kate sighs.

"He didn't wanna save you," Kate says to Richie. "He said…"

"We were done. He told me. After we got out of that bar, he was done with me," Richie says, already knowing what she was going to say.

Kate nods and digs her fingers into his shoulder, though her nails are short and barely make an impression against his shirt. "I made him. It took a while, but I made him. I think it was probably the money."

"Seth'll do anything for money," Richie says.

"So will you," Kate points out.

"Seth will do more for money than I will." He wraps his arm a little tighter around her hips.

"I doubt that. I think you're both pretty even in that respect," Kate insists.

"Oh, you know us so well now, do you?"

Kate shrugs. "I don't know. Aren't you two a team? Seth told me that the jobs you did together were always the best ones."

"That is true."

She glances toward the wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the hotel. She needs to leave. The brothers need their time to say goodbye, and she needs to steal herself away and prepare for losing that part of her soul that she no longer has ownership of. She starts to move, but Richie holds onto her.

"Wait," he says.

"I need to go. You need to talk to Seth," Kate sighs, because it's hard but she has to do it.

"I don't want you to leave," he echoes his words from weeks before.

Kate wraps her heart in steel. "I have to. I've felt what you feel, I've seen what you see," she says, smoothing her hand over his hair and down his neck before she tries prying his fingers away from her hip. "I can't be completely selfish. This wasn't all about me. You know that."

He releases her after a few lingering moments and Kate slides off the bed before she can change her mind. She moves to the chair near the bathroom and pulls on her jacket, feeling safer with the two stakes and the knife tucked inside. She pushes her feet into cowboy boots and turns back to Richie. He's yards away, the other bed an ocean between them. "Bye, Richie," she says, because she doesn't know how long she'll be gone or how quickly he'll die once the bullet wound shows itself.

Richie nods and doesn't say anything.

8

Kate spends the day roaming around the coast, around old monuments and cathedrals, using what little money is in her pockets to pay and donate. It eats the day away and she tries not to think of anything heavy. She doesn't think about what's going to happen now, where she'll go, what she'll do…she just hopes Seth won't leave her here in Mexico. She wants to go back to the United States. She's not a fugitive, she can integrate back into society there and maybe learn to live with the hole carved out of her soul.

Everyone had been talking about the earlier earthquake. Apparently some sort of police had gone out to the island to see what happened to the lighthouse. Kate can only understand bits and pieces of what they say. But even she doesn't know everything that happened. It couldn't have been as easy and simple as Richie said.

She goes back to the hotel long after dark. It's nearing ten at night, the sky is dark and she walks through the lobby with heavy feet. She doesn't know what she expects to find in the room on the third floor, but she walks there slowly, like she's dreading it.

She stands in front of the door and she can't do it. Shaking her head, she clenches her teeth and turns, going down to the front desk. She has a little money left and buys another room for the night, one with a single bed. It's on the first floor.

When Kate wakes up, she finds that she slept almost twelve hours. Everything comes rushing back to her and she tells herself to be strong. She checks on the steel around her soul and finds it there, though thin. She needs to work on that.

She showers and pulls on yesterday's clothes before she ventures upstairs. She knocks, even though she has a key in her pocket. She knocks and waits, expecting to hear Seth yell something about still sleeping and for whoever was there to go away.

Instead, he pulls open the door a little, just enough for her to see his face, tired and haggard.

"Where have you been?" he asks, though his voice lacks the hardness and aggravation of earlier. He's hung over and possibly grieving.

"I couldn't come back," Kate says quietly. "I slept in another room."

"Did you pick a lock?" he asks. He had been teaching her a few things on their road trip and that was one of them.

Kate shakes her head. "No."

"You wasted money on another room?" He frowns.

"Sorry. Is he…"

Seth steps back and pushes the door open. Richie's lying on the bed, bandages bled through. Kate can tell that he's no longer breathing. "You just missed him," Seth says, his voice hollow and accusing.

Kate blinks and hears the ocean rush in her ears.

8

They drive back to the border. They talk little. Seth doesn't blame her, and Kate tries to deal with having no dreams. None at all. It takes them three days to drive to the Texas border. They get through with a bribe and a swim across the Rio Grande. The only thing they bring with them is a jar and their clothes.

They keep a low profile because Seth is still wanted. Kate drives a lot of the way, following the map along the highways as she travels northwest. It takes them days to reach the Grand Canyon.

"This is really cliché," Kate says finally, as they stand outside their borrowed car on the edge of the canyon.

"I know," Seth says, taking in a breath of fresh, American air, jar tucked under his arm. "This was always Richie's favorite place."

It was beautiful. Kate had gone there once, when she was seven or eight, with her parents and brother, back when everyone was still alive. "Are we going to the bottom?" she asks, looking over at him.

He nods.

8

They take a trip down to the lowest part of the canyon and Seth empties the jar into the river, which is flowing well thanks to the recent break in the drought that brought thunderstorms to the desert.

"I don't think I can be a criminal," Kate says finally, as they sit on some sandstone rocks and watch the river course by.

"You'd make a shitty criminal," Seth points out. He's smoking, holding a cigarette between his lips. It bobs up and down as he speaks.

"I don't want to leave you," she confesses.

Seth takes a drag and pulls the cigarette away from his mouth. "You worried about me now?"

Kate tilts her head. "Yes."

"Don't be. If I die…well, least I saved the world before I did." He crushes the end of the cigarette against the rock and puts the filter in his pocket.

"If you ever get out of…whatever mess you're left with, you should come find me," Kate says. "I'm goin' to California. I'll see my aunt and try to…figure out what to do now."

Seth nods. "You gonna kill any more culebra?"

She shrugs. "If I come across any." She knows she won't feel safe without a stake or knife with her at all times. It is ingrained in her now.

"Good," Seth says.

Kate lets herself down off the rock and stands in front of Seth in her boots and shorts and oversized jacket. "C'mon. You're drivin' me to San Diego, since you're my chauffer and everythin'."

Seth scoffs but gets off his rock-seat and brushes off his hands. "After you, princess," he says, sweeping a hand out, back toward the path upward.

Kate takes one last glance at the river and the sun beaming off the cliffs. She doesn't feel happy, she feels lost. She found a home and lost it just as quickly as she found it, and she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to find it again. But she can't just linger, she can't stay in the past. Her mother, her father, her brother, they wouldn't want that for her. So she'll move on and live, for them, for her, for that part of her soul that will always stay lost.


End file.
